Pearl Harbor 75 years later

Today December 7 2016 I was reading a book while eating lunch as I often do. The waitress inquired about what I was reading & my intrest in terms of subject .
I replied "history " & had a thought. I asked her if she knew the significance of todays date.
She did not. I asked if they had mentioned Pearl Harbor in history class to which she replied they had not though she seemd to have some vague notion of where it was.
The story of Peral Harbor is such a perfect lesson in the results of complacency & the power of forgivness how can a child graduate high school not nowing the significance of 12/07/1941.
It seems to me the ultimate infamy is the failure of our education system.

Pearl Harbor 75th Commemoration

I mention many of these historic dates through the year to younger people, Dec 7th isn't the only one they don't know...sad too...

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952)

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Originally Posted by HOOKED ON HISTORY

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

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And we see lots of that now...

Indeed. And I fear we are about to rinse & repeat as well.

It does seem astonishing if the history of the unprovoked Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour isn't taught in U.S. schools and it would be interesting if anyone could provide an explanation for this if true. I believe that the history of the Holocaust is now taught in British schools which is good. However, in recent years I have noticed that there are a few middle aged British people about who don't seem to know that Germany was about to invade the U.K. in 1940 and or think that the U.K. would be perfectly pleasant place to live if the Nazis had taken control.

Perhaps more disappointing than forgetting it is that when the paper mentioned it today they called it a "pre-emptive strike". Perhaps in the mind of the Japanese at the time, but not to the Americans then and not in the eyes of history today.

We learnt of the ANZAC's at school and the AIF I remember 2 prophetic statements from the day 7th Dec ~ Roosevelt ~ The 7th of December as a day of infamy, Yamamoto ~ I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant.

In reply to HOH #1 I stood on the Arizona (BB-39) memorial in 1990 as a young 33 y/o whilst holidaying in Hawaii it was on my must do list no options accepted.
All I can say it was a very sobering experience to see the hulk beneath the water knowing that so many young men perished in a god awful way in the dark and the cold water as the ship sank if they were not killed outright by the blast of the munitions going up. Then you get to that beautiful marble wall with the 1100+ names on it and I can tell you it was haunting and so very very sad it was rather an unsettling experience for me. May they forever "Rest In Peace" knowing the world has not forgotten them.

(If the mods pull this part I understand)
And excuse me I am not being critical but I found it confusing at the same time there were Japanese tourists flocking over the memorial I know the years have passed but the sheer irony of it all just perplexed me I felt like asking one of them why they were here but refrained, I was there because America was our Allie and helped us in N.G even when the U.S armed services were stretched to the limit.
The passage of time has probably healed allot of the animosity over the event and the world for the most part is a better place than it was from Sept 1939 ~ August 1945 you just have to wonder what they teach in the Japanese schools about that day Dec 7th 1941...................

History is one of my passions. Plainly, it is our "human family's" story.

Events that occurred long before I was born created the world in which I live and the way I live. Remember too, that historical events were the life experiences of our ancestors. I know that one of my ancestors died in the Battle of Flodden, another died in the Tower of London after the English Civil War having been on the losing side, another was an indentured servant, and another migrated during the Potato Famine. My grandfather fought in Second Ypres in 1915, my father was serving overseas in the army in 1941, I lived during the Cold War, and I remember events that happened during my youth - John Glenn orbiting earth for the first time, the Kennedy assassination, Harold Holt's disappearance, and so many more. Over the last 50 years, I fought in Vietnam, Saigon fell, the Berlin Wall fell, Iraq I & II, 9-11, 7-7, family members, including my second oldest granddaughter, have had active service in the Persian Gulf with the RAN or in Afghanistan with the Australian Army. All these things have shaped me, and as I said, the world I live in.

In no small way, these events and all history have shaped the world my - our - grandchildren and their children will know for decades and even to the end of time. To know the past is to know the future. The flip side of that is that if one is ignorant of the past he looses sight of the future.

That is why I believe Pearl Harbor Day should be a national day of remembrance for the U.S. so that its people are never ever deluded into believing that isolationism is their protection and they are never again caught unprepared.

Visiting Pearl Harbor is a sobering experience. History and heartbreak. I have been there a few times and each visit I spend a whole day at the memorial and the USS Missouri (BB-63).

With reference to post 7, it does seem like an outrageous statement to make to describe the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour as a "Pre-emptive Strike". After all the U.S.A. was still a neutral country at the time.

I too am fascinated by 20th century history especially military history of the 20th century and also family history. One of the slightly more bazar events in my family's history happened during WW1 to my late Gran, a child at the time, and her mother. To cut a long story short they found themselves in the unfortunate position of being held at gun point by a German spy just after he had been exposed as a spy. My Gran's mother reacted quickly to resolve the situation by thrusting her walking stick, with ornamental handle, hard up the German's nose. At this point my Gran ran off and so too the German, presumably with a very sore nose. I believe that the German was eventually caught. I still have the waling stick somewhere and if it comes to light I will post a picture.

Many teenagers today are so wrapped up in their computers and smart phones that they know little or nothing of WWII.
However they probably would not have a computer to play with if it had not been for the Bletchley Park de-coding boffins building the first calculating machines.
Nor would we have landed a man on the moon without the Nazi rocket scientists!

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Originally Posted by HOOKED ON HISTORY

It seems to me the ultimate infamy is the failure of our education system.

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And for that we only have ourselves to blame.

Japan, China, the United States and the Road to Pearl Harbor, 1937–41;

Between 1937 and 1941, escalating conflict between China and Japan influenced U.S. relations with both nations, and ultimately contributed to pushing the United States toward full-scale war with Japan and Germany.
At the outset, U.S. officials viewed developments in China with ambivalence. On the one hand, they opposed Japanese incursions into northeast China and the rise of Japanese militarism in the area, in part because of their sense of a longstanding friendship with China. On the other hand, most U.S. officials believed that it had no vital interests in China worth going to war over with Japan. Moreover, the domestic conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists left U.S. policymakers uncertain of success in aiding such an internally divided nation. As a result, few U.S. officials recommended taking a strong stance prior to 1937, and so the United States did little to help China for fear of provoking Japan. U.S. likelihood of providing aid to China increased after July 7, 1937, when Chinese and Japanese forces clashed on the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing, throwing the two nations into a full-scale war. As the United States watched Japanese forces sweep down the coast and then into the capital of Nanjing, popular opinion swung firmly in favor of the Chinese. Tensions with Japan rose when the Japanese Army bombed the U.S.S. Panay as it evacuated American citizens from Nanjing, killing three. The U.S. Government, however, continued to avoid conflict and accepted an apology and indemnity from the Japanese. An uneasy truce held between the two nations into 1940.
In 1940 and 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt formalized U.S. aid to China. The U.S. Government extended credits to the Chinese Government for the purchase of war supplies, as it slowly began to tighten restrictions on Japan. The United States was the main supplier of the oil, steel, iron, and other commodities needed by the Japanese military as it became bogged down by Chinese resistance but, in January, 1940, Japan abrogated the existing treaty of commerce with the United States. Although this did not lead to an immediate embargo, it meant that the Roosevelt Administration could now restrict the flow of military supplies into Japan and use this as leverage to force Japan to halt its aggression in China.

After January 1940, the United States combined a strategy of increasing aid to China through larger credits and the Lend-Lease program with a gradual move towards an embargo on the trade of all militarily useful items with Japan. The Japanese Government made several decisions during these two years that exacerbated the situation. Unable or unwilling to control the military, Japan’s political leaders sought greater security by establishing the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” in August, 1940. In so doing they announced Japan’s intention to drive the Western imperialist nations from Asia. However, this Japanese-led project aimed to enhance Japan’s economic and material wealth so that it would not be dependent upon supplies from the West, and not to “liberate” the long-subject peoples of Asia. In fact, Japan would have to launch a campaign of military conquest and rule, and did not intend to pull out of China. At the same time, several pacts with Western nations only made Japan appear more of a threat to the United States. First, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy on September 27, 1940 and thereby linked the conflicts in Europe and Asia. This made China a potential ally in the global fight against fascism. Then in mid-1941, Japan signed a Neutrality Pact with the Soviet Union, making it clear that Japan’s military would be moving into Southeast Asia, where the United States had greater interests. A third agreement with Vichy France enabled Japanese forces to move into Indochina and begin their Southern Advance. The United States responded to this growing threat by temporarily halting negotiations with Japanese diplomats, instituting a full embargo on exports to Japan, freezing Japanese assets in U.S. banks, and sending supplies into China along the Burma Road. Although negotiations restarted after the United States increasingly enforced an embargo against Japan, they made little headway. Diplomats in Washington came close to agreements on a couple of occasions, but pro-Chinese sentiments in the United States made it difficult to reach any resolution that would not involve a Japanese withdrawal from China, and such a condition was unacceptable to Japan’s military leaders.
Faced with serious shortages as a result of the embargo, unable to retreat, and convinced that the U.S. officials opposed further negotiations, Japan’s leaders came to the conclusion that they had to act swiftly. For their part, U.S. leaders had not given up on a negotiated settlement, and also doubted that Japan had the military strength to attack the U.S. territory. Therefore they were stunned when the unthinkable happened and Japanese planes bombed the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The following day, the United States declared war on Japan, and it soon entered into a military alliance with China. When Germany stood by its ally and declared war on the United States, the Roosevelt Administration faced war in both Europe and Asia.

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Originally Posted by Vincent

And for that we only have ourselves to blame.

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As a society, yes. As individuals (like most here I am certain) do our best to impart the importance if history to the next generation. I think (for me anyway) it (history) is the foundation of my interest in milsurps.

When the Allies stared finding the work and death camps Ike ordered that as many pictures and as much film as possible be taken of these atrocities because within 100 years there will be those that will try to deny it ever happened. That is happening right now in the Middle East and it hasn't been a 100 years.

When my daughter was in high school I looked at her American History book especially the so called part on the Viet Nam conflict. I didn't recognize any of what they put in that book and I was there. Today 15 years later when mentioning 9/11 they say the attacks were perpetuated by persons with an agenda. No mention of who these persons were or what their agenda might have been.

Several years ago I talked to a young man at a local range. It started when I saw his tats in Crylic ( Russian) he said his parents came from Russia and that he taught History in a Cleveland school. He said his school board would not allow him to teach history the way us old fogies learned it. Now he had to teach History in the PC way it's called Common Core and it's a disaster

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Originally Posted by TDH

He said his school board would not allow him to teach history the way us old fogies learned it. Now he had to teach History in the PC way it's called Common Core and it's a disaster

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I just watched a piece on TV about northern British Columbia and the fish canneries that used to be there. One operated nearly 100 years and is a museum now. While doing the tour for TV, the guide described the hundred people that would be involved ion butchering salmon and processing them to cans. Then this magic machine came into use in 1918, and it was called the "Iron butcher"...well, it wasn't. It even had name plate on the side showing you it was the "Iron Chink"...we have one in the museum here. Sad to think they can't even teach history or talk about reality with the correct terminology. No slander, no slur...just facts please...

This is a 30 question WWII quiz.

See how you do.


The World War II Quiz | HowStuffWorks

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29 out of 30

Missed the nutella question. Guessed correctly on two others.

I've taken it twice and still came out 28/30 both times and Nutella and the liberty steak got me I said Spam

Got 27/30 got these wrong Spam, Pearl Harbour Battleships, Russia/Japan treaty.........

I missed 2 got nutella missed spam and one of the math questions.
I thought some of you might enjoy the quiz as much as I.

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Originally Posted by Paul S.

In no small way, these events and all history have shaped the world my - our - grandchildren and their children will know for decades and even to the end of time. To know the past is to know the future. The flip side of that is that if one is ignorant of the past he looses sight of the future.

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Beautifully put Paul..